2009 IB HL Visual Art Exhibition: Robert Dean

The inspiration comes from my experiences as a child growing up overseas, the worlds I grew up in as well as those of my own imagination. The art I make is an attempt to draw people away from their comfort zone. While living overseas I’ve travelled and lived in many different locales, many of them wildly different from the last. In a sense, my art represents that conflict, presenting an amalgamation of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. I augment those factors with the creations I find in my own imagination

The diversity of my work is my biggest problem and greatest strength. I have had some difficulty in finding a definite theme for my work, as each piece ends up telling a different story or view of my world. As a result, my art as a whole appears at first to be disjointed, but is linked by an integral factor: Through my art I attempt to use the blurry line we all share between fantasy and reality to introduce my experiences and opinions. I am most influenced by artists who use their talent to draw a dramatic reflection of our own paradoxical world through art. For that reason, graphic novels have always fascinated me and my style is greatly influenced by them and the artists who draw them, like Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. The figurative, literal art of comics and stories has always meant more to me than interpretive pieces and that too is reflected in my pieces: I want to send some kind of message, but however the viewer interprets my art, it shouldn’t lead them in circles.

The research I have made has been in a very personal direction; I learn from other artists and their styles, but I find more original inspiration in surroundings, people and things from everyday life. My favorite media has always been pencil and pen, but the IB program has pushed me out of my comfort zone to explore painting and mixed media